So . . . if the initial performance of SLO Rep’s current homage to the 1980s is any indication, the theatre has a hit on its hands with its production of film-turned-Broadway-phenomenon “Xanadu.”
So . . . first there are the sounds. The wailing of sirens, the swell of the sea, the chiming of a ship’s bell (or is it a church bell, perhaps?). Surely these are the sounds of despair, or loneliness, or sorrow. But then comes the sound of the first words uttered in the latest SLO REP production—a profound but relatively commonplace query: “How are the children?”
Whether the lovers in “The Fantasticks” end up with a happy ending isn’t really the point; by show’s end you’ve gotten the message that “without the hurt the heart is hollow.”